Earlier this month, the City Council approved Mayor Mamdani’s nomination of Lisa Kersavage as Chair of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). Kersavage had previously served for seven years as the LPC’s Executive Director under the prior outgoing Chair, Sarah Carroll. The LPC is the country’s largest municipal agency regulating landmarked properties, and oversees all landmark designations and regulation of all landmarked properties in New York City. 

We have written to the new Chair to share with her multiple ongoing concerns regarding the Commission, and to urge her to act upon them. This includes outstanding proposals for landmark designation South of Union Square, throughout the East Village, at Our Lady of Guadalupe and Most Holy Redeemer Church, the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, and other locations, as well as the general lack of designations by the Commission in recent years, especially those connected to underrepresented histories like LGBTQ+, Black, Latino, women’s, and immigrant histories, in which our neighborhoods are so rich. We also raised concerns about the ongoing deterioration of landmarked properties like the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center and 34½ East 12th Street (the Police Athletic League building) and the LPC’s general lack of enforcement action against violators of the Landmarks Law, including the City itself.

Read the letter HERE. 

TO HELP: